Titus is a pastoral letter written to a trusted co-worker left on the island of Crete. Paul’s task for Titus is clear: set in order what is lacking and appoint elders in every city. The letter is short, direct, and intensely practical.
The theological centre of the letter is the grace of God that has already appeared. That grace brings salvation and trains us to deny ungodliness and live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. The “blessed hope” is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ — the same appearing that the first-century churches were taught to expect within their generation.
Read Titus as a letter written inside the transition generation. The grace has appeared. The people are being purified. The call is to live as those who already belong to the finished work, while the old age is still passing away.